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How to Improve Your Finance Skills (Even If You Hate Numbers)

Harvard Business

If you’re not a numbers person, finance is daunting. Stop avoiding finance because you’re afraid of numbers. Think of it this way, “Finance is the way businesses keep score. “Finance and accounting are very simple. .” “Finance and accounting are very simple. Overcome your fears.

Finance 28
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Bridging Organization Design and Performance

Kates Kesler

Between 2012 and 2014 alone, Kraft, Royal Dutch Philips, Hewlett Packard, Ingersoll Rand, ConocoPhillips, Darden, and E-Bay agreed to split off substantial portions of their business in response to a groundswell of hostility toward underperforming diversified companies. As organization designers this trend intrigues us.

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Keynes Is Dead, Abenomics Fizzles, US Fails to Reach Escape Velocity, Stimulus Fatigue

MishTalk

Economist Andy Xie has an interesting article in CaixinOnline that contains his views on 2014. The global economy is unlikely to accelerate in 2014. Abenomics is likely to fizzle out in 2014. Today''s information technology allows a multinational company to position research, marketing, finance and managerial jobs to anywhere.

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3 Ways M&A Is Different When You’re Acquiring a Digital Company

Harvard Business

billion in 2014 to help it make the leap from a traditional advertising company to a digital one. Doing digital M&A right means upending the way most companies approach financing, due diligence, and merger integration. Let’s start with financing the deal. So, what do you need to know to get up the learning curve?

Company 28
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Research: Could Machine Learning Help Companies Select Better Board Directors?

Harvard Business

Since the mandate of the board is to represent shareholders’ interests, shareholder votes stand out as a natural performance metric. We found that firms tend to choose directors who are much more likely to be male, have a large network, have a lot of board experience, currently serve on more boards, and have a finance background.

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What the Best Transformational Leaders Do

Harvard Business

Whereas most business lists analyze companies by traditional metrics such as revenue or by subjective assessments such as “innovativeness,” our ranking evaluates the ability of leaders to strategically reposition the firm. We then narrowed the list to 18 finalists using three sets of metrics: New growth.

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What 11 CEOs Have Learned About Championing Diversity

Harvard Business

Yet progress within organizations has been slow – there is still a lack of women and minorities in leadership positions, and certain industries like tech and finance are lacking diversity at all levels. And many diversity programs fail.